Huawei’s CEO, Ren Zhengfei, bluntly told the press that he would shut his company rather than hand over data to the Chinese government.
For those who came in late, the US has been telling anyone who listens that Huawei is using its network equipment to spy on people. No evidence has ever been supplied, but that has not stopped Huawei losing lucrative government contracts.
Speaking to the assembled throngs at a media briefing, Ren said Huawei looks to emulate Apple when it comes to privacy – referring to the vendor’s refusal to build a backdoor for the US government.
“We will never do anything to harm the interests of our customers.Apple is an example we look up to in terms of privacy protection. We will learn from Apple.”
He said that he would rather shut Huawei down than do anything that would damage the interests of its customers in order to seek its own gains.
Ren claimed that Huawei has never been asked to hand over information by the Chinese government, and said he had received assurance from the government that no laws can force it to build backdoors into products.
“Neither Huawei nor I personally, have ever received any requests from any government to provide improper information”, he said.
Ren is a supporter of the Communist Party of China and an ex-officer of the People’s Liberation Army.
“Today, I still love my country”, he said. “I support the Communist Party of China, but I will never do anything to harm any other nation.”
The CEO expressed admiration for Donald Trump, calling him a “great president” and praising him for his “bold” act of slashing taxes.
Although we are not sure that particular piece of brown-nosing would work on Trump, who already believes it.
Huawei’s growth next year will likely be less than 20 percent, he said – with a revenue of around $125 billion (£96.8 billion). However, he said that the vendor’s market perception means it will struggle to take advantage of the struggles competitors such as Nokia and Ericsson were experiencing.
Ren said that Huawei would shift focus to better serve countries that welcome Huawei.
“We can build high-quality networks in those countries to prove that we are trustworthy”, he said.
